Hawkins was released from federal service late in 1777, as
Washington learned to rely on la Fayette
for dealing with the French. He returned home, where he was elected
to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1778. He served
there until 1779, and again in 1784. The Carolina Assembly sent him
to the Continental Congress as their
delegate from 1781 to 1783, and again in 1787.

In 1789, Hawkins was a delegate to the North Carolina convention
that ratified the United States Constitution.
He was elected to the first U.S. Senate, where he served from 1789
to 1795. Although the Senate did not have organized political
parties at the time, Hawkins' views aligned with different groups.
Early in his Senate career, he was counted in the ranks of those
senators viewed as pro-Administration,
but by the third congress, he generally sided with senators of the
Republican or Anti-Administration
Party.

Indian
Agent

Benjamin Hawkins, portrayed on his plantation, teaches Creek people
to use European technology. Painted in 1805.

In 1785, Hawkins had served as a representative for the Congress
in negotiations with the Creek Indians. He was generally
successful, and convinced the tribe to lessen their raids for
several years, although he could not conclude a formal treaty. The
Creek wanted to deal with the 'head man'. They finally signed the
Treaty of
New York after Hawkins convinced George Washington to become
involved.

In 1796, Washington appointed Benjamin Hawkins as General
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, dealing with all tribes south of
the Ohio River. As
principal agent to the Creek tribe, Hawkins
moved to present-day Crawford County in Georgia. After he was adopted by
the Creeks, he took a common-law wife from among the women.

He began to teach agricultural practices to the tribe, and
started a farm at his home on the Flint River. In time, he brought
in slaves
and workers, cleared several hundred acres, and established mills
and a trading post, as well as his farm. Hawkins expanded his
operation to include more than 1,000 head of cattle and a large
number of hogs. For years, he would meet with chiefs on his porch
and discuss matters while churning butter. His personal hard work
and open-handed generosity won him such respect that reports say
that he never lost an animal to Indian raiders.

He was responsible for 19 years of peace, the longest such
period between the settlers and the tribe. When in 1806 a fort was
built to protect expanding settlements, just east of modern Macon, Georgia,
the government named it Fort Benjamin Hawkins in his
honor.

Hawkins saw much of his work to preserve peace destroyed in
1812. A group of Creeks led by Tecumseh were encouraged by British agents to
resist increasing settlement by European Americans. Although
Hawkins was never attacked, he had to witness a civil war among the Creeks,
with the White Sticks and Red Sticks at odds. In the end, the
Creeks who were warring with the US were defeated by Andrew
Jackson.

During the Creek War
of 1813-1814, Hawkins organized the friendly Creeks under Major William
McIntosh to aid Georgia and Tennessee militias in their forays
against the Red Sticks. After the Red Stick defeat at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend,
activities in Georgia and Tennessee prevented Hawkins from
moderating the Treaty of Fort Jackson in August
1814. Hawkins later organized friendly Creeks against a British
force on the Apalachicola River that threatened
to rally the scattered Red Sticks and reignite the war on the
Georgia frontier. After the British withdrew in 1815, Hawkins was
organizing a force to secure the area when he died from a sudden
illness in June 1816.

Benjamin never recovered from the shock of the Creek civil war.
He had tried to resign his post and return from the Georgia
wilderness, but his resignation was refused by every president
after Washington. He remained Superintendent until his death on
June 6, 1816. On his death bed, he formally married his Creek wife,
the woman who had given him four children over the years.